Page 2803 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 June 2012
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that will establish a national health funding pool through which all public hospital funding derived from the commonwealth government must flow. This legislation also needs to establish an administrator of the national health funding pool.
The bill presented today provides for these arrangements, and is focused on establishing for the ACT the structures necessary to allow commonwealth growth funding for public hospital services to flow to the territory in the future.
As I said, this bill will establish for the ACT the national health funding pool and the administrator of that pool. In addition, the bill provides for a territory-managed fund for the purposes of receiving funding for block grants and a new directorate which will be established under the Financial Management Act 1996, to be under the direction of the Director-General of the ACT Health Directorate.
Establishing a new directorate under the Financial Management Act will ensure appropriate accountability and transparency of funds received by the ACT from the national health funding pool.
This bill not only establishes the mechanisms to allow commonwealth growth funding to flow in the future but it also delivers unprecedented transparency and accountability for public hospital funding. National health funding pool accounts, for example, will be audited and have complete transparency in reporting and accounting.
This bill provides for the ACT’s participation in a national scheme that will reform how public hospitals are funded in the future. In developing this legislation, COAG established the Health Reform Implementation Group, made up of senior officials of each jurisdiction and chaired by the commonwealth Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, to provide national oversight to the implementation of the NHRA.
This group has led a collaborative process of drafting common national provisions to be enacted in each state and territory that give effect to the provisions in the NHRA for the establishment of the national health funding pool and body and the administrator of that pool.
The Parliamentary Counsel’s Committee, the PCC, drafted the common national provisions of the legislation, and the Health (National Health Funding Pool and Administration) Bill 2012 presented today reflects these common national provisions being enacted around the country.
The Health (National Health Funding Pool and Administration) Bill 2012 presented today provides for the following:
a. adoption of the common national provisions as drafted by PCC;
b. necessary consequential amendments arising out of the adoption of the common national provisions, including the disapplication of certain ACT legislation;
c. establishment of a Reserve Bank of Australia account for the ACT—which will form part of the national health funding pool;
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